Should You Promote Amazon Products as an Affiliate?
Should You Promote Amazon Products as an Affiliate?
In order to answer that, you need to understand what their affiliate programme really is, and how it works.
Amazon is a very different type of affiliate programme, compared to Clickbank... because you are selling primarily PHYSICAL. I say "primarily", because Kindle is also Amazon, although digital.
Amazon is generally not your FASTEST way to make money online, because of the lower commission rates, which range from 4% to 12%, depending on how much volume you generate.
The low commission is dependent on the fact that, unlike digital products, physical ones actually COST something to produce and fulfill in delivery. So the "production and fulfillment cost" savings you have in digital - which is the primary factor for the high commission - are not present in physical one.
To generate a decent income, you need volume with Amazon... not simply because of the lower commission rates, but also because of the generally lower unit price value of what MIGHT be ordered.
For example, if you make an affiliate sale of a $14.99 book, your commission is $0.60.
There are, however, some other advantages and disadvantages to Amazon.
- Amazon is THE biggest online shopping website. It's a trusted retailer, and physical products (in general) have a much lower refund rate than digital ones; you can pretty much count on your commission being there.
- Amazon provides data feeds you can use to build your website, and they are easily the best in the world. You can get a professional looking page done, with the trusted Amazon "brand image", fairly quickly.
- Amazon's cookie policy is very particular. If someone goes to Amazon through your link, ANYTHING they buy will be commissioned to you. You may have promoted a book, but for whatever reason, they ended up buying a bike (hey, look... Amazon is like Wikipedia: you always leave from a different page you originally went there for!)... and you get a commission on THAT. Suddenly, your commission on a $200 bike has become $8.00! Happens all the time on Amazon.
- HOWEVER... the cookie policy IS particular, because the cookie only lasts 24 hours. Anything a person buys within that time frame, is credited to your affiliate account in commissions... But, if they go back STRAIGHT to Amazon AFTER that period, bypassing YOUR page, you are NOT tracked to a sale.
- Lastly, you most likely won't be doing email auto-responder campaigns for an Amazon product, like what happens in the digital arena, when people give their email to opt in. So there's no follow up or back-end. If you don't make the sale there and then, it's pretty much GONE. Unless, of course, you're a specialist yourself, and have content to provide, relative to how / why / benefits / something for the product. By this, I mean you're a gardener, and provide gardening tips newsletters which people subscribe to, while you promote Amazon products through email marketing. And most times, this simply won't be the case.
So, in essence, Amazon can be a viable option, although not the one generating the most income at first. It takes a LOT of volume to win with Amazon, and, especially, be aware of HOW the whole Amazon affiliate operation works.
-Josh
Recent Comments
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Thanks for spreading the details of Amazon. I can't decide if I like them or not! Oh well, maybe give them a chance down the road.
Hi Josh,
Thanks for this post, it gave me an idea for older, more established content/pages.
After enough traffic has circulated through a site Amazon could be an option to explore whereas the other affiliate sites such as Clickbank could get you revenue on the short term.
Would you agree?
To Our Success Online,
Jonicas
Hi Jonicas,
Traffic is the life-blood of any online business. This is were most people simply FAIL to make it happen.
So you can never get "enough" traffic; more is better.
However, bear in mind that on your more established sites / pages, the Amazon product you promote MUST still be relevant to the content. Simply getting a lot of traffic won't justify, if it's irrelevant.
CB products, while they can get you a higher commission immediately, are also subject to higher refunds. Quality is often an issue with CB products. But when you find a good one, then go for it.
I would advise hybrid pages. In other words, if you can develop a page with a CB product link and an Amazon product link, you will have the best of both worlds.
Just make sure the items are content-related, and they complement each other (so ideally, you make TWO sales).
-Josh
Hi Josh,
Thank you for your reply and I agree totally with you regarding relevance of content to market more than 1 affiliate.
For example, one could write an article on methods to cure or alleviate the painful effects of gout.
You could market an Amazon book and a Clickbank(or any other affiliate network of choice) method and the article could easily be relevant to both, the issue would be to have the foresight in writing the original article to be open-ended in a way (to be able to use more than 1 marketing avenue) whilst at the same time being focused on the subject at hand.
To Our Success Online,
Jonicas
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Very informative. I am happy I got that right when I just signed up with them. I just upgraded to premium and its perfect that I can have several websites, so I can also promote other products/services. Thanks.